A survey to measure burnout and quality of life among surgeons turned up a detail that caught our eye: Nine percent of surgeons said they were concerned they had made a “major medical error” in...

A batch of Canadian swine flu vaccine has been linked to severe allergic reactions in six recipients. The batch containing enough vaccine to protect 172,000 people will now have to be discarded. The incidence of the allergic reactions is unexpectedly high for this batch -- the norm is less 1 per 100,000, but 6 per 172,000 is almost four times the average reaction, especially considering that not all doses in the batch have been administered yet, and there can be many more recipients with side effects out there. The batch was used in Manitoba, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Prince Edward Island provinces of Canada.

If you're feeling a world of hurt, you might want to skip the pill form of pain relief. New research found that just gazing at a photo of someone you love could reduce your pain. A small...

Quebec woman Nathalie Blanchard poses on the beach in a Facebook photograph that convinced her insurance company that she was no longer depressed. Can you really determine someone’s mental state...

Florida’s never-ending tobacco litigation continued not to end this week. A woman in South Florida who smoked Benson & Hedges for 25 years sued Philip Morris and was awarded $300 million. Most of...

The NIH gives out more than $20 billion a year in research money, and the institutions that get it — universities and med schools, among others — are supposed to track potential conflicts of...

Photo: jupiterimages We all could use a little metabolism boost from time to time, but did you know that certain foods can rev up your metabolism? It's true, jalapeno, habanero and cayenne...

For many women over 40, part of the regular routine has long involved heading to the doctor once a year for a mammogram and to be told to perform regular breast self-exams to help detect breast cancer. Now, as we all have heard, that advice has been upended by new guidelines released by an influential government-funded panel. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines state that routine mammograms aren’t necessary for women of average cancer risk in their 40s, and that women between 50 and 74 years old don’t need to undergo mammograms more often than every other year, according to the WSJ. They also recommend that physicians abstain from teaching women how to examine their breasts for signs of cancer because of a lack of evidence that it is of any benefit.

It was the last day of winter break. I was driving to a friend’s house to say goodbye before returning to New York for the spring...

After decades of progress, the number of Americans who smoke hasn't budged over the last five years and actually rose slightly from 2007 to 2008, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The H1N1 virus, commonly called swine flu, is more likely to afflict youngsters and poses special challenges in this age group, since children with the flu are more apt to develop respiratory distress than adults with the illness. And the younger the child is, the greater the likelihood that increasing respiratory distress will require emergency care.

No matter how much the Corn Refiners Association tries to convince us that high-fructose corn syrup is healthy, I'm not buying it. Now I have another reason to avoid it: new findings have linked high-fructose corn syrup to high blood pressure, ak...

Well, there goes another myth we all wanted to believe. It seems the road to slimness is not paved with French pastries, cheese and wine after...

Need an excuse to dial back your workouts? Well, ladies, you've got it. New research from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology found that the risk of...

Roche, Elan and Biogen are going to team up to study why some patients taking certain drugs develop a rare brain infection called PML. This sort of thing has happened a few times in the last few...

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common condition that begins in early childhood. Popular known as ADD, ADHD is a disorder characterized by inattention, hyperactivity and...

Stuffy noses with a cold are annoying. Stuffy noses almost all the time is even more annoying. So what to do? Many people turn to nasal saline (salt water) rinses or irrigations or they use neti...

Pollen and cat fur are not my friends, and when I become so stuffed up I can't smell a thing, I turn to my neti pot. It looks like a little teapot. You fill it with warm salt water, place the spout in one nostril and as the water passes through y...

Nearly 200 million children in poor countries have stunted growth because they don't get enough to eat, according to a new report published by UNICEF Wednesday before a three-day international summit on the problem of world hunger.

Who needs turkey? Thanksgiving is an ideal time to test out new vegetarian recipes that could quickly become everyday favorites. Forget garden salads, steamed broccoli or cooked carrots.